I’m not the most social person in the world; I tend to be a bit of a loaner. Slot car building can be a great solitary activity but when it comes to racing, it seems only natural that that’s something you need 2 or more people for. In January of 2020 the economy was booming, I’d just had a successful year in business including a big bonus and things were looking pretty positive. By March we were locked inside our homes afraid to even goto the grocery store. Here I was beginning to come out of my shell, just found a new hobby that I thought might lead to some social activity, and suddenly social activity gets shut down by government mandate.

I did contact the 2 HO slot car clubs in my area, and I did meet with the coordinator of one of them, but both of them said basically the same thing: no more club events or racing because of the scary chinese virus. I exchanged a few emails with a few club members and I did manage to attend 3 small meetings at someone’s home track, which I admit were really fun, but once the “numbers” started going up again, even those small 3-4 man meetings were called off.

So, that was pretty much that; it was back to playing with my toys alone. Now, had I not been able to find an acceptable timer, that would have pretty much been the end of this hobby right there; with nothing more a lap counter, solo racing wouldn’t really be possible, which is why a timer was so critical. And once I got a timing system, it turned out it wasn’t really so bad. Solo racing means racing against the clock, but I made up my own way to pit 2 cars against one another; just run each on its own lane one at a time and who ever gets the best time critera-be that the fastest lap or the fastest total race times-wins.  Obviously this isn’t rocket science and yes, I know it isn’t really “real racing” but, again, “real racing” requires real racers.

At first I was just writing each race down on a notepad and doing the things the most simple way possible: the winners of the first heat face off against each other, paired by the fastest times, until a ‘final battle” where only 2 cars are left since, as we all know, “there can be only one.” Then I started spreadsheeting everything, which is cool because you can track progress and get an idea for which cars are consistently winning as well as which ones seems to be losing performance and thus may be due for a tune-up or upgrades. I even took to giving my races cool sounding names like “‘Sportscar Suicide’ Fast-Lap Eliminations” and “Muscle Car ‘Manic Panic’ 5-lap shootout;” the kinds of names you would see on flyers and tickets when you went to a real track. This is all child’s play compared to some of the complex things that can be done with software but I found it quite satisfying. Maybe I am a simpleton…or maybe I’m just trying to make the best of a bad situation.

I hope that someday in the future our lives can return to normal and people can start interacting like human beings again, able to leave our homes without half ours faces covered so we can see each other smile, and we can actually invite people into our homes again for some drinks and bullshitting and racing. Its my cynical nature to say that, as time goes on, I’m starting to doubt that anything will ever be normal again, but when I have those kinds of thoughts I remind myself that its always darkest before the dawn. And, if I can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, at least I can see the light on my timing gate!

Years ago I worked at a company owned by a man named Bob who had a fetish for “inspirational sayings.” He used to plaster these all over the building, and changed them out often; the office-wide joke was that these little motivationals were referred to as “Bobisms.” One of Bob’s favorite Bobisms was a massive poster in the break room reading “TIMING. IS. EVERYTHING.”

Well, in racing, as in life, Bob was right.

I played around for a while using a manual lap counter and a stop watch racing against the clock, but it soon became clear that what I needed was a timing system. As anyone else into this hobby knows, there are not a lot of commercially available options for this. In fact, I found only 3; one had a nice hardware setup but came with a freeware program called “Race Coordinator” that I absolutely hated; it was ridiculously complex, and although there were a lot of YouTube videos about it, there was no quick reference manual with which to look up an answer to a question. I work with computers for a living and even I had a hard time figuring that program out, and it was clear early on that it did a lot of things I wasn’t interested in and I quickly got tired of wading through all that just to set up a race and time it. The second option I looked at was the exact opposite; the software, “TrackMate,” was pretty good, but the hardware was completely “DIY.” Honestly I’m still keeping this in the back of my mind as a potential solution; I do have the skill to solder and wire up my own sensors if and when I decide I want to devote the time to it. So maybe I’m busy and have little free time (true), and maybe I’m just a spoiled brat (no comment) but I wanted an “out of the box” solution and I wanted it NOW.

In the end I wound up going with something incredibly simple because, often, simple is good. Its an extremely cool product; the only bad thing about it is that is custom made.

There is a gentleman in Brooklyn, NY named Ray Graham; his ebay handle is ray3741. Roughly a year ago he offered a product for sale the likes of which I have never seen anywhere else. You may be aware of a company called Ninco, which makes 1:43 and 1:32 scale slot cars. They make some pretty nice stuff, all very good quality; although most of their car line are vehicles that are too modern for my taste, they have made some beautiful vintage models in the past. Ninco makes a very simple, very reliable track timer called the “Pole Position” that is completely “plug & play.” The only problem: it’s not made for HO scale. This ebay seller I mention was customizing these timers by making very nicely constructed light bridges out of wood and putting the sensors into the track pieces of your choice. I bought one of these for my Tyco track and, after trying out the other products I described above and being unhappy with both of them, I bought a second one for my AFX track. I have been extremely happy with them.

Mind you, they are not cheap, but nothing custom made ever is. The bad news is that he does not appear to be offering these anymore; I have not seen one for sale on ebay since I bought mine, however he may be able to make them to order (note: I do not know this guy nor am I speaking for him in any way; this is not an advertisement, I just like his product).

Last time I checked, his short video showing this system is still up on YouTube:

The beauty of this is that it only does one thing: TIME YOUR RACES! That was all I wanted; I didn’t need a bookkeeping system or a car or driver catalog or 25 different methods of setting up a round robin; I just wanted to time my races by lap speed or total elapsed time, and that’s exactly what the Ninco Pole Position does. In addition, the custom-made light bridge is beautifully finished, painted black and decorated with checkered flag decals, and I love the way the light glows red in the dark; it creates a very cool effect for night racing.

At this point I am beginning to think about taking another look at the TrackMate solution and seeing about buying that setup and putting it together. That system can be purchased with either a light bridge or reed switches. I personally have no experience with reed switches, but how hard can they be to set up? For now, though, I’m pretty happy with what I have, and it’s a good thing, because the biggest news of 2020 put a very quick “kibosh” on the idea of actually racing against another human being.

I just got a delivery of 3 new chassis from one of my favorite vendors, Slots N’ Stuff (check them out on ebay). The chassis themselves are nothing special but the tires they are fitted with are; these are the new Auto World “Firestone Goldline” replicas, with the thin yellow sidewall on the outside of the RWL. This is a very vintage mid/late 1960’s look that I really love, and when I saw them I had to have them (Goodyear, incidentally, had a style similar to this using a blue sidewall instead of yellow). On the same day the box o’ chassis arrived, another package came from a private seller: my 4^th (and, therefore, last) Ferrari Dino T-Jet body. This one is white with a red stripe; I already have red/white, blue/white and yellow/red, so white/red was the perfect way to finish off my usual “squadron of four” configuration.

Now of course this blog makes it obvious that I’m not generally a fan of stock wheels, but that doesn’t mean I never use them; I just don’t use them often. To use these tires, though, I needed to use the stock wheels, but still found a way to uptown things a bit by replacing the chrome wheels that came with the chassis with these red chrome take-offs from one of the disastrous red chassis I’ve bitched about in an earlier post (at least I got something out of them!)

And look at the result! Of course there was the usual grinding and shaving with the Dremel on the chassis, the screw posts, and a couple of other places (the Ferrari Dino body is a particularly challenging fit for the AW Ultra-G chassis) but it was so worth it!!! In fact, this looks SO GOOD that I’m probably going to give the same treatment to my yellow one; I like the way that one looks now with its red Vincent ATS wheels, but I have to get rid of the non-performing red chassis its sitting on, and I have another set of red chrome AW wheels, so it may get these wheels and tires too!

Also up for the Firestone Goldlines: one of my Ford G.T. 40’s, and one of my Lola G.T.’s, both cars that will look very “right” wearing these period tires!

My first race of 2021 this Sunday was unexpectedly cut short by a broken controller. I was a little too enthusiastic hitting the straightaway with my ’65 Corvette coupe and nailed the throttle so hard I heard and felt something snap; the car stopped and my controller trigger went limp. Of course these were just the standard Tomy/Russkit controllers-nothing wrong with them but nothing special-and it so happened I had sacrificed my spare many months ago for the connector. Race interrupted due to mechanical failure!

My ignorance is about to show mightily, but that’s part of the reason I’m doing this blog; in hopes of learning from anyone who deigns to interact with me.

So, I figured this was the perfect time to try my custom made Parma controllers!

I bought these a while ago from a guy in the local HO slot car club when he was willing to have a few people over to his house in spite of the pandemic to race on his basement track (he seems to have since changed his mind about that). I love the feel of them; they have great trigger control and have a heft and a texture that makes them feel like a high quality product. As I said, I had already taken the wire from my spare stock controller for the connector; I had I soldered the clipped ends of the wires to give the alligator clips on the end of the Parma leads something to grab onto, so I cut the wire off the controller I had just broken and did the same; once I had both Parmas wired up, I turned the track back on and…watched both my cars fly across the room.

That wasn’t good.

So as I said, I bought these from a guy in the HO slot club who is a seriously competitive racer who runs BSRT and Wizzard-lexan bodied slot cars on a wooden track, and like so many of the seriously competitive guys he was not a fan of trac-mag racing. Even so, he was an old timer who grew up in the Thunderjet era and knew them well. He suggested that because I was using the AW T-jets with the traction magnets, a 45-ohm controller might be about right to give my cars an extra boost. Made sense to me!

It seemed like a good idea at the time; unfortunately, it looks to have been a miscalculation. With the exception of my very slowest cars-the ones that are “showboats” and completely non-competitive-the 45 ohm resistor was too much (er, I mean, too little); the cars simply moved too fast, and letting off the trigger even almost all the way didn’t get me through a turn; I had to let off completely and do a full stop just to get a lap without a deslot…which is obviously no fun.

Well…bummer. Now what?

The answer, I thought, was to grab my third set a controllers: the new AFX 120-ohm models.  I had bought a pair a while ago because I wanted longer cords but had frankly never bothered to even use them. I plugged them in and thought I’d go to town, but was in for yet another disappointment!

Its hard to believe these controllers were made by the same company that made the earlier ones I was using; they are, in a word, CRAP. They are extremely poorly made, of cheap material, and the feel of the trigger and the smoothless of the rheostat is a joke; at any given trigger position I have too much power or too little, there’s nothing until the trigger is almost ¾ of the way squeezed giving me only a small amount of travel for all the power, the triggers often stick with the throttle open… The things are so bad I again found I couldn’t finish a tournament, as I lacked the control I needed to race. Did I just get an exceptionally bad set? Maybe, but the feel of the whole piece is desperately cheap, so maybe they’re all this bad; I have no idea, but if I’m right, shame on AFX for putting their name on this garbage.

What a disappointment! So…now what do I do?

Well honestly I didn’t know, so I decided to do 2 things: first, I bought another pair of the Tomy/Russkit controllers of the type I had; lightly used and cleaned/tested by the vendor, standard style and cord length, and they should hopefully be here in a week. Good enough. But I was also looking for something else. First I’d thought I’d buy another set of Parma controllers, and there’s plenty to choose from, but as soon as I started looking it dawned on me that I don’t know what I’m looking for!

So let me ask y’all: on a roughly 45’ 2 lane track with a standard 22V power pack, what resistance IS right for Ultra-G T-Jets??? Anyone have any ideas? 120-ohm seems to be just barely enough, so I want just a little more power, but obviously not too much more!

I’ve already done a post about the Turbo Boost terminal on my Tyco track and asked if anyone out there knows of a similar product for AFX; this episode with the Parma controllers is a perfect example of where that could come in handy. I’ve looked many times and found nothing like it, but I did find something that interested me even though I didn’t really understand it.

From what I gather, these controllers were made for the Japanese market and were not sold in the US. I found a set (although the handles are red rather than white) for sale today on ebay; they were marketed as “unused/new-in-package” and seemed to be a very good price, so I took the risk and bought them. They are on the way.

As much info as I’ve been able to find about these, the “thumbwheel” or dial on the side of the controller is a second rheostat that functions in a way similar to my Tyco Turbo Boost terminal. In fact, some of the marketing material I’ve seen for these specifically refers to it as “turbo boost.” I may be wrong about this, however; I’m not sure if this is an adjustment you can set and leave, or if its used like trigger that can only boost the power for an instant. The price I paid was low enough that I feel comfortable finding out, but if anyone out there can tell me about their experiences with these that would be awesome. If only I had a way to get them NOW! It’s Sunday night and I’m jonesing for a race!

• BODY: Aurora Model Motoring
• WHEELS: Vincent
• TIRES: Road Race Replicas

This car has won more tournaments on my tabletop than any other car in my fleet, so much so that it has been dubbed “The King Of The Hill.” Its not that its exceptionally fast; it is fast, but I have many other cars that have higher top speeds in a straight line. It’s the handling that’s really the secret to its success; it is so nimble and well balanced and holds the turns so well that it can almost complete an entire circuit at nearly full throttle.

This was the first Cheetah I bought; I got it as a body only on an ebay auction at a fantastic price considering its near perfect condtion. I liked it so much I’ve since bought 3 others-I just bought my 4^th yesterday, in fact, in orange-and of course I’ll get around to profiling those as well, but this one is the most exciting of the bunch.

As another point of interest, this is the 3^rd car I fitted with a transparent blue chassis, and its one of only 2 blue chassis I’ve gotten decent performance out of. The other one (on my blue Ferrari Dino) is fitted with Black Dragon magnets, but this one has its stock magnets Certainly the car’s small size and light weight contributes to its fierce performance, but it is a well proportioned and nicely detailed body, so it doesn’t look “too small” (as some of the early T-Jets do, especially those that were originally designed as Vibrators).

One final note for any fellow die-cast collectors: as a kid growing up, no main line toy car company made a model of a Cheetah in 1:87 – 1:64; It wasn’t until I saw a picture of one in a book that I knew what they even looked like in real life, so I grew up believing it wasn’t even a real car. That belief came from my one reference: the Tootsietoy model! I was never a big fan a Tootsietoys-never collected them, anyhow-but I had a basket full of them as almost every American kid my age did back then, and the Cheetah was always one of my favorites. During its production run the Tootsietoy model was cast with 2 different racing numbers, a 5 and a 18; it was for that reason that I chose to assign this car racing #18. I believe this was the only Tootsietoy made-in the small scale, anyway-with a racing number cast into the body.